Today we start on our journey to Galway and its vaunted Arts Festival. Paul Fahy, the executive director, has been working hard with Tim Evans (our executive director) making all the arrangements–no small feat! We begin by rebuilding Bruce Graham’s remarkable jewel of a play, The Outgoing Tide, which broke all our records at Northlight and won the Jeff Award for Best New Play. I think we are all excited to see how the Irish audiences will receive a play which voices dismissive opinions of the Church and toys with ideas that challenge medical ethics and self-determination.

We know that the deep, rich, human side of the play will touch audiences of every stripe as it did with Northlight audiences, and that alone is exciting to us. Now the task of “getting the band back together” will be very interesting. It’s been a year since the cast has said the lines, walked on the stage, and heard the audience response. Should be fun!

Today we will restage the show much in the same manner that we did originally. Though we have solved many of the mysteries during our incredible run here at Northlight, we are certainly open to the possibility of making new discoveries! I’ve remounted several shows in my career and it’s never less than interesting and revelatory. I think of Lady With All The Answers which we took to Cherry Lane in New York–Judy Ivey was still discovering things two years later!

The set has been built in Ireland and it looks exactly the same, which is eerie and reassuring all at once. We will rehearse at Northlight with rehearsal props and no costumes, and until the last run-through next Wednesday, no audience to observe us except a few interns. We’re off!

And of course we could not have done this without our subscribers and donors who made the experience so wonderful.  In particular Tim and Sue Sullivan, who sponsor our Interplay reading series, without whom developing new work would be an impossibility for us.

Thanks to all who got us here, and I will keep you up to date on our Irish adventures!